INAN meeting 20 · 2026-02-10 — Committee Evidence — LegisWatch

Summary

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs met to study subsections 6(1) and 6(2) of the Indian Act, including the second-generation cut-off, the unstated paternity policy, and the gradual loss of entitlement to registration. Appearing from the Department of Indigenous Services were Lori Doran, Director General of Individual Affairs; Stuart Hooft, Director of Registration Reform; and Sacha Senécal, Director General and Chief Data Officer.

Lori Doran explained that the second-generation cut-off means a child of a parent registered under subsection 6(2) can only inherit status if the other parent is also registered under 6(1) or 6(2), leading to loss of status after two generations of parenting with a non-registered person. She noted that a collaborative process launched in November 2023 is consulting on how to remedy this, not whether to do so, and that solutions received include a one-parent rule, first nations jurisdiction over registration, and use of DNA or blood quantum, which will be reviewed by a panel of experts before first nations-led consultations begin in spring 2026. She acknowledged the urgency but stressed the need to avoid unintended consequences, and she confirmed that the department has no fixed end date for completing the process.

Stuart Hooft reported that the backlog of registration applications has been reduced by 28% since the Auditor General's June 2024 report, with 8,900 applications pending as of February 9, 2026, and 92% processed within one year. He attributed the improvement to a stable workforce, efficiency measures, and the fact that the system is now seven years removed from the last legislative changes in 2019, making ancestry research more straightforward. He added that all processing officers are now trained and certified before handling applications, addressing a prior Auditor General finding.

Sacha Senécal provided population projections, stating that 340,839 individuals are registered under subsection 6(2), representing 29.9% of the total registered population, and that the registered population will grow until 2066 before declining without a solution. He noted that removing the second-generation cut-off would have significant impacts, with about 90% of new registrations occurring off reserve, affecting programs like non-insured health benefits and post-secondary education, and that impacts vary by region and community proximity to urban centres. He said the department is working with Statistics Canada on projections and can provide data to the committee.

Doran clarified that the unstated paternity policy was addressed in Bill S-3 in 2017, requiring all forms of credible evidence to be considered and every reasonable inference made in favour of the applicant, and that the department continues to assess such files. She disagreed with the suggestion that prior consultations had occurred on the second-generation cut-off, stating that while demographic impacts were studied, no consultation on solutions had taken place until now. She also noted that Bill S-2, currently awaiting second reading, is the fourth bill since 1985 to address registration inequities, and that the collaborative process on the cut-off was launched in parallel to compress timelines.

Hooft emphasized that while there is no legal duty to consult on legislation, the department is consulting because the issue directly impacts rights holders, and that the goal is a solution that respects both individual and collective rights to avoid repeating past mistakes. Doran added that the consultation process includes modern treaty holders and self-governing nations, and that community-level data on 6(2) populations has been shared publicly and mailed to each first nation.

The committee discussed Bill S-2 and its Senate amendments, with Doran noting that the original bill had minimal impact but that removing the second-generation cut-off would significantly increase registrations. She said the department is seeking feedback on implementation considerations to prepare for potential legislative changes, and that any solution will require careful planning due to varying impacts across communities.

No procedural debate, motions, or votes occurred during this meeting.

AI-generated summary — may contain errors; verify against the official evidence.

Witnesses · 3

Lori Doran

Director General, Individual Affairs, Department of Indigenous Services

Opening remarks

Thank you very much. Thank you for the invitation to appear at committee today. I also wish to acknowledge that we are meeting today on the lands of the Algonquin Anishinabe people. My name is Lori Doran and I am the director general of the individual affairs branch, services to individuals sector, for Indigenous Services Canada. In my role, I oversee the registration services. As you said, I am joined today by my colleagues Stuart Hooft, director, registration reform and policy, procedures and program management, and Sacha Senécal, director general and chief data officer for Indigenous Services Canada. We're pleased to be invited today to kick off this study on subsections 6(1) and 6(2) of the Indian Act, including the second-generation cut-off. Based on the motion, the committee is also interested in examining the impacts of the unstated paternity policy and the gradual loss of entitlement to registration in some first nations communities while exploring potential solutions that are compliant with article 33 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This article affirms the right of indigenous peoples to self-determine “their own identity and…

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Stuart Hooft

Director of Registration Reform, Registration Reform and Policy, Procedures and Program Management, Department of Indigenous Services

Opening remarks

Absolutely. When we talk about the backlog, we mean applications that took longer than six months to process. Six months is our service standard to process registration applications. In 2025, more than 50% of applications were processed within that service standard, and an additional 42%, so 92% in total, were processed within one year or less, which is much shorter than the numbers cited by the five-year study of the Office of the Auditor General. Specifically, since the report was published in June 2024, the backlog number has reduced by 28%. As of yesterday, the total number of applications sits at 8,900, which we're continuing to process on a daily basis.

Sacha Senécal

Director General and Chief Data Officer, Department of Indigenous Services

Opening remarks

I can try to answer that question. My unit works with the program to make population projections and try to figure out the impact. We want to know how many more people could be added to the Indian Register and thereby gain status, and we want to determine some of the impact in terms of program costs. In its original form, Bill S‑2 had a relatively minimal impact. The original version didn't include any mention of a large number of additional registrations. In the version currently being considered, the removal of the second-generation cut-off increases the impact significantly. If we also want to consider the impact starting now, from 2026 on, but also going back to 1985, that means significant impact. We have numbers for these things. We are in the process of developing projections with Statistics Canada to get a clearer picture of the situation. In terms of the impact on programs, I wanted to mention one thing first. Most of the registrations that could potentially be added to the Indian Register would happen in off-reserve communities. Approximately 90% of the registrations would happen off reserve. Based on program eligibility criteria, impact will depend on whether a…

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Indigenous and Northern Affairs

Summary

Witnesses · 3

Bills mentioned